I guess I can understand why people may not have thought it a “great” Mario game, but I could never understand the venom some people have towards it. I played through Sunshine and enjoyed it through the end. It tried a lot of different things with the Mario formula, some worked, and some didn’t, but I love it for what it is, not what it could have been.

I think on some level I can understand it… If I were to consider the overall theme of the game I could agree. My girlfriend has said things like that about Sunshine before.

But for me, the general frustrations with the camera (I just went back to the game literally yesterday and it’s even worse than I recalled — particularly in the haunted house sections) are just the start of reasons why I can’t possibly prefer it. FLUDD was an interesting concept, but to rely on it the ENTIRE game is just too much. I found myself longing for areas where it’d be taken away from me.

It’s hard to feel like I’m on vacation when the game fights half of the things I want to do. Putting that together with horrible swimming controls and horrible new characters/enemies, I find myself less and less entranced with it.

I played the hell out of it when I got it and had fun with it. From a sheer platforming standpoint, the game is enjoyable. I just think it becomes needlessly frustrating and feels oddly amateurish for an EAD developed title. Going back to it now I feel like most of my enjoyment of it was largely “Oh man a new Mario game!!!”.

i love sunshine alot more than galaxy actually. sunshine really did feel a whole lot more fun. i never did quite understand the hate, especially the “omg the fludd is so gimmicky!” “gimmicky?” because galaxy doesn’t have gravity/spinning gimmick?! every game has a gimmick, that’s what sells it. to me, fludd was a welcomed member of the mario team, the piantas were an amazingly fun character design, and the levels of it were more mario than galaxy’s. that and look at galaxy: just replace mario with a ballerina that can jump and spin and that game is the girliest game this side of bratz. the only thing really connecting galaxy to… a mario game is the enemies and the level design that is just /reminiscent/ of a mario game. in sunshine everything but the piantas were mario related. in 5 years from now, you show me a pianta or fludd, and it’s mario. you show me rosalina or a lumos though, i’d think its from something else.

Sunshine wasn’t anywhere near as fun as Galaxy. With Galaxy, the difficulty curve was near-perfect, the levels were varied, and there were enough new gameplay mechanics to differentiate it from Mario 64, without making it into another game completely. Sunshine wasn’t all bad, but there were only 7 or 8 environments in the game, and some of the later levels are incredibly frustrating. Not to mention that it didn’t feel like a true Mario game, something was missing.

Galaxy is as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen a game. The music, the worlds, the difficulty, the gameplay; everything felt right and it was a joy to play from beginning to end. The same simply cannot be said of Sunshine.

I think there was more to Sunshine. There was good level variety (red coin levels, amusement park, ghost house, etc). Beyond that, there was more power ups. 3 types of Flood, different Yoshis . .. in Galaxy I didn’t find the Bee very much of an addition, Ghost was OK, and the time limit on Ice and Fire Mario sorta sucked. On top of that, flying was totally pointless. You only used it in one level, not counting the space station.

There is something about Sunshine… I’m not sure if I like it more or not, but it had a wonderful, strange atmosphere to it. I had never seen water look so amazing in a game, and just running around the main hub island, jumping in the water, kicking fruit around, tropical music playing and the excellent feeling of tropical sunshine that they created… there was a lot of joy in it. I didn’t mind the manual camera, because I’d already gotten used to it with other, lesser platform games. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been better, it just didn’t bother me personally. Galaxy wowed me a lot more, I think, but it’s more about whiz-bang excitement and yeah, there is something about Sunshine that feels like going on vacation. And I agree with Fuzz about the underwhelming power-ups in Galaxy. I miss general power-ups like Yoshi, and the raccoon feather, that you could use in any situation - the ones in Galaxy are way too context-sensitive. Anyway, I really don’t know if I enjoyed Sunshine more, but I certainly think it’s an absurdly underrated game.

8 fully-realized environments with 15 things to do in each of them on average trumps 50 or 60 short, shallow environments with one or two things to do in each of them. Bianca Hills, Noki Bay and especially Delfino Plaza felt like real places I was visiting, not just 3D constructs in space. The biggest Galaxy level still seemed smaller and more linear than the smallest Sunshine level.

Besides that, the only time I felt Sunshine was rehashing previous Mario games was the lava level towards the end. Everything else felt fresh, even sparkling.

Galaxy was great, but Sunshine was superb.

I’m not very far in Galaxy, but for me it’s no brainier. I couldn’t get into Sunshine.. and I tried HARD. I finally traded it in. Galaxy plays more as what I would expect the natural evolution of Mario would be. Sunshine just didn’t do it for me at all.

I’m a frequent reader and I hardly post. But something about this article hit me spot on. Sunshine had something magical that Galaxy didn’t have, but Galaxy definitely had magic of it’s own.
What I think is that Sunshine was a laid back relaxing game. (Or that’s what it felt like with the art direction) And Galaxy had that Epic feel to it, as if the world was falling apart (like jumping from planet to planet and stuff)
I think it has to do more with identification, like Raindog said, parts in Sunshine made you feel as if you were really visiting them, something that Galaxy doesn’t do well because it would be impossible. It’s just better to who it clicks better with.

Yeah, I think part of what made Sunshine good is the openness, which galaxy just doesn’t really have. But that game also frustrated the hell out of me, the camera was TERRIBLE, ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE through most of the game. But the warp pipe sections were tons of fun, there just weren’t nearly enough levels like that, something that Galaxy did have lot more of.

Wind Waker = Sunshine
Ocarina of Time = SMB64

Nintendo really screwed up with Twilight Princess. SMG is, in my opinion, better than Sunshine, but Sunshine is still a pretty kick ass game.

The GameCube was a system that Nintendo really took chances on. Luigi’s Mansion isn’t your typical Mario game, they brought Metroid into a new dimension, added a new franchise with PikMin, and gave Mario a water-spurting backpack. There are a bunch of other franchises that saw departures during the ‘Cube’s lifetime, but because Mario is arguably the most loved character in gaming, people had an aversion to seeing him change.

I feel that Sunshine was a great game that had a very different feel from previous Mario titles but still captured the sense of Wonder and exploration that Mario games exhibit. A lot of gamers would prefer more of the same, while others welcome change. So developers and publishers face criticism no matter which route they opt to take. Sunshine is great and I’ve played it more than I’ve played Galaxy, but that’s because I don’t own Galaxy and am more of a fan of the 2D Mario titles.

Having not played Sunshine, I begrudge it solely for Mario’s Down+B move in Brawl. That thing is friggin’ useless.

wow… those are some rough comments on galaxy from some of you

i love galaxy because it gives me the same feeling i got from playing smb 3 and super mario world as a youngster

and I’d pay tons for that nostalgia over and over

I really enjoyed Sunshine more than Galaxy actually. Galaxy seemed so much easier compared to the Gamecube title except for two or three of the Purple Coin stars. I did play Sunshine the same summer it came out and since I was still in high school, I was taking my vacation with Mario on Delfino Island. I had a blast playing the game and I didn’t technically finish the game since those blue coins were hard to get. But overall I believe I had more fun with F.L.U.D.D. than I did with Rosalina.

After completing both I did enjoy Galaxy a little more than Sunshine, mainly from a technical standpoint. However, I never understood the flack that Sunshine got and I enjoyed both games throughly. The only real complaint that i can somewhat agree with was the difficulty curve, I do remember a few levels that were tricky in the middle of the adventure but not enough to take away from the game. I did not think the camera angle was any better in Galaxy than Sunshine, at least from what I remember.

Galaxy was far far to easy. i beat the game twice. my female 39 year old room-mate beat it 3 times. its just easy. everything is right there for you, it tells you exactly where to go, the levels are short, and the boss battles simply are not challenging. nintendo is trying to cater to the casual crowd more and as a result, killed the challenge

dont get me wrong, i love me some galaxy, but for different reasons.

Sunshine… i am yet to complete. ive never gotton all the way through it. and while some people might look at that as a bad thing, i think its a god thing. that means that mario sunshine is STILL delivering new content to me… what… 6 years later?

where galaxy is all dried up.

harder = better
’nuff said.

I enjoyed Sunshine more because there’s no second player option. My brothers are buttholes when it comes to being the second player.

This is exactly how I felt about Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. As epic as TP was, WW just gave me this feeling while playing it that made me enjoy it far more.

I agree that Sunshine is unfairly maligned and Galaxy actually starts out really slowly, but when it comes down to it, with Galaxy, I kept on going until I got 120 stars (and then I kept going some more!). With Sunshine, I never got 120 stars because of the damned blue coins. So, of the two, I prefer the beatable one.

Sunshine was better, IMO. It wasn’t really easy to get all 120 Stars like Galaxy, and it was really rewarding when you did. The fact that it was harder, and still challenges me today. (Well, I beat it, and I did a re-run). Galaxy was waaay to linear for my taste. Now, if they made a Sunshine sequel with Galaxy’s graphics, it may just be the best game ever.

At first i liked sunshine, then i hated, later i went to uni and both me and a housemate decided to finish it 100% because we were both diehard mario fans from the NES age. The 30 blue coins in each level are EVIL! And when i say EVIL i say it from both mine and my buds depths of our souls. We had 2 left in the ENTIRE game left to collect, we probably spent the same amount of time trying to find those last two bas*ard coins than we did doing the rest of the game. We cross referenced walkthroughs in the end to find them, and still never did. Its like the game decided to just delete them so we’d carry on playing and playing and playing and playing until we were so angry and upset we just gave up. There was one missing from the cliff level with the shells and poison sea, and one from the final level with the fiery chomps, oh my god i’m having the worst flashbacks imaginable right now, ANGER! The worst thing is it makes me want to do it all over again from scratch to see if that’ll help, must fight that urge, to dangerous to do it alone…

I love Mario Galaxy. It fills me with pure glee. Sunshine disappointed me, though I did play it all the way through.

mario galaxy was devoid of any love in my opinion, nothing like what I felt when I first played mario 64 or sunshine

hah, mario galaxy was a fine game by the way (don’t hurt me) it just didn’t feel like there was the same love put in it, ya know?

It’s alright, Nick. You’re still good in my book!

Super Mario Sunshine was quite nice, a bit too hard for my taste… But it did miss some of the Nintendo-magic, I don’t know - the vacation theme was neat, some of the levels were soooo fun but Yoshi was useless, the levels were uneven and I must admit I did miss a Goomba here or there. Galaxy is for me one of the best game I’ve played ever, seriously, it’s a masterpiece.

Yoshi was more of a gimmick than FLUDD.

Sunshine was quite a fun adventure. Galaxy seams to be missing a couple elements that made Sunshine so much fun. In a way Sunshine is similar to Super Mario Bros 2 (AKA Doki Doki Panic). It introduced a look and gameplay that was so much different that what we were used to. A lot of folks don’t look kindly to these two Mario titles, but I think they are both fantastic. I like Galaxy and I like the innovative play via the Wiimote, which take me back to the day of introduction of Mario 64 and the analog stick, but aside from the new control Mario just is not as captivating this time around.

Don’t get me wrong. It is a great game and there is plenty of wow factor in it, but once that passes, Galaxy seems tame and comfortable in Mario-familiar ways. All that bling does not instantly make a Mario game as memorable as another. I know a lot of folks have love for Mario, I love him and his games too, but I don’t think I would place a Mario game on the gold plater touting it was the best game I have ever played (and I have been gaming a long time). I would however say that a few of them are some the best titles, or memorable titles that I have played.

Yes, you are crazy. I will play Mario Galaxy again in the future. I could never force myself to beat Mario Sunshine and will almost certainly never play it again. While playing Mario Galaxy, about 80%-90% of the time I am doing something fun and fresh. While playing Mario Sunshine, I am having fun about 50% of the time, and the other 50% of the time, I am being forced to do something too tedious, too repetitive, or a bit too difficult to be fun. I have nothing against somewhat-challenging games, but Mario Sunshine isn’t fun enough often enough to be worth my time and frustration.

Also, I really enjoy playing games with other people around (gamers and non-gamers alike), and Mario Galaxy is fun even in a party setting, whereas Mario Sunshine is not fresh enough or fun enough to hold the interest of anyone but the person playing (and for me, not even that).

Sunshine had a special mood, but I think the main thing is that it’s further back than Galaxy. It’s an awesome game, it is. Hard as hell in places, which I approve of. But some of the challenges are kinda daft, the camera can be a bastard in places, and occasionally, the paint-cleaning thing can be a chore. There was always something not-QUITE-right about the way the Fludd-floating is handled… Something a bit too mechanical. They should’ve made it more of a “floaty” motion, akin to Yoshi’s hovering.

Also, blue coins? Yeah, too damn obscure. Damn near impossible to find all of’em, especially keeping track of which ones you’ve already got.

Galaxy is a great 60 star game.

Sunshine is a great 100 star game.

64 is a great 120 star game.

I really disliked Super Mario Sunshine and have been super satisfied with Super Mario Galaxy. Usually, I refer to Sunshine as “Super Mario Janitor” since all he seemed to be doing was washing up other people’s messes. Boo.

I love Galaxy more, but really, that’s it…it’s like saying ‘Which diamond is more beautiful?’ I don’t understand why people seem to hate Sunshine so much.

My only real gripe with SMS is the lack of level diversity. No snow land, no lava land, just kind of the same environment over and over again. I actually really like FLUDD and game itself, but by the end of the game, I was glad it was over. Still one of the best mario games ever.

There was certainly a lack of level diversity in SMS. Diversity is something that drove the original Mario games for me.
But that’s not the only thing that turned me off of SMS. The second I heard Bowser’s voice I turned the power off. I haven’t beaten the game for that reason. “Mario! Why are you tryin’ tuh ruin my family vay-cay-shun?!”
Fuck that.

I’m pleasantly surprised at the amount of Sunshine love around here, and I’m also surprised by how many people hold Galaxy in disdain. I’m not one of the latter in any way — I think it’s an amazing title with a totally special feeling in and of itself. I just slightly prefer the feeling of Sunshine.

Great comparison to SMB2, Master Shredder. Lol, I feel like such a dork calling somebody that

Galaxy seemed easier than Sunshine - but more traditional. Sunshine had annoying blue coins though and a one-sided atmosphere. Both are great games in my opinion, just very different.

Both games are fine titles, and neither is objectively better than the other. It simply comes down to what individuals prefer in their gaming experience. Personally, though, I agree that “Sunshine” gets much more flack from people than it deserves. I enjoyed both games, though I found the blue coins in “Sunshine” far too troublesome to actually acquire.

I can see why people diss sunshine for some reason, since it’s a Mario game, People expect to run and jump, just like with Sonic games people expect him to run really fast instead of a slow paced games.

I really enjoy Sunshine. It’s a beautiful game but it’s so unlike Windwaker and Ocarina where the core mechanic is the same but the graphic is not. Sunshine gameplay, as enjoyable as it maybe, is very different than other mario games, hence why Galaxy are more successful in this area.

Sunshine isnt half as bad as some people say it is, but its still missing something. It’s weird, the game feels both like a vacation, and as a chore to get all the stars.

Galaxy has the same star finding setup, but it keeps things diverse, real diverse. Every level is different, and even late in the game there are still new powerups to be found and used.

And god the music. Sunshine had some great music, but galaxy has FANTASTIC music. The orchestra, and the music itself make mario galaxy a fantastic experience right from the start. If theres any game that deserves a prize for its soundtrack its SMG

wow, i didn’t think anyone else agreed, but its good to confirm something which i’d been feeling for a long time…

i enjoyed sunshine more than galaxy.

I just need to give a shout-out to the Delfino Plaza theme. I literally turned on my system just to hear that song while I did something else in the room

Sunshine was a beautiful game. It was the first real mario game that I enjoyed. Frankly speaking, it was the first. I never played Mario 64 so I had nothing to compare it to. It is an amazing game. I just think that Mario 64 people were expecting too much. Sunshine is a beautiful game. It’s like Majora’s Mask to Ocarina.

It’s a good sequel but for different reasons. (if it even is a sequel?)

I prefer Sunshine, frankly, I like FLUDD. I wish he could’ve been more useful in brawl… like an Up-B with the FLUDD Jet or something.

Game play wise Galaxy is definitly better. However I still REALLY enjoyed Sunshine. It had some nice twists such as the FLUDD and also made my favorite character, bowser jr., mainstream.

I enjoyed the relaxed and laid back mood of Sunshine (and its music) more than Galaxy. But, Super Mario World is the greatest. Mario is also on vacation in the game, just like in Sunshine. The responsiveness of Mario, the awesome dynamics of cape control, excellent level design, and the sense of adventure and exploration in the game are things which contribute to my liking of it.

I think it was mabye because Galaxy was more dark and sad. Sunshine was bright, the way a game should be. If Galxy was a different chractor’s game, it probably would have stayed in yone with that charactor. It wasn’t in tone with Mario. Mario is all happy and sunny, Galaxy was girl running away from home then crying. I did enjoy the stiryline though, it just wasn’t Mario.

N Rumas, dude, get off Nintendo’s dick. Galaxy is nowhere near the greatest game ever, and if anything, Sunshine is even FURTHER removed. Don’t get me wrong, Ninetndo’s a great company and Galaxy/Sunshine/64 are great games, but you don’t have to scream with pleasure everytime Nintendo does something…seriously, have some goddamn dignity.

critical hit

One of the things that upset me about SMG was that, simply put, there were too many levels. Mario 64 was amazing because you played levels over and over again and grew to know every part of them and love them. I’d jump into lethal lava land, jump on the shell and see if I could unlock every star w/o falling off.

Sunshine expanded on that, because there were more stars (shines). However, they made some of them downright frustrating to get (eg the bonus levels where you didn’t have FLUDD, and jumping from boat to boat on Yoshi in Delfino Plaza).

Galaxy got rid of annoyingly hard stars, but also gave up on familiarizing the player with the level, which in my opinion makes them a little less fun to play over and over.

Replace Sunshine with Galaxy and vise versa and you have my feeling on Galaxy.

Every experience I’ve had with Sunshine (as well as 64) have been bad ones and left me irritated and diappointed. I hope someday I can go back and play through both of these games, but Galaxy was just too amazing and magical. It had a certain appeal, and emotion to it that neither of the previous entries had.

“i think galaxy is a serious contender for Greatest Game Ever”

i do.

“Galaxy is technically a far better game”

i obviously do not think sunshine is a contender for greatest game ever.

“dude, get off Nintendo’s dick.”

IM STUCK HELP!

Here’s my take on things…

When SM64 came out, it was the perfect game to bring Mario into 3D. It was still very Mario, but there was a whole new element to it, with exploration and big open areas that really opened the game up compared to what could be done in the two dimensions of past games…. But there were still quite a few levels, like the Bowser levels, were you basically followed a path, sometimes with more than one optional route, that involved a lot of platforming and felt distinctly like the classic Mario games. As much as I loved the big open areas, I generally loved these even more.

Sunshine really put its focus on the sort of big, open, exploratory areas featured in SM64. Yes, it still had the path-based platforming areas, which usually took away the FLUDD, but they were fewer and further between. This is why I think a lot of people don’t like Sunshine as much. The big areas were great, fun, and new in SM64, but we’d seen them a billion times since then, in every other 3D platformer/adventure game, and many other 3D games inbetween. We’d become jaded to them, and without the more distinctly Mario path-like platforming areas, the game felt out of place within the Mario series.

Galaxy fixed this. It still had the exploratory areas, like the bee galaxy, but it features a lot more platforming and following paths through levels, and thus manages to feel more like a classic Mario game. I haven’t read through everyone’s comments on this post, but I’ve seen plenty of comments elsewhere regarding Galaxy to the effect of “it took the awesome platforming areas of Sunshine where you don’t have FLUDD and made an entire game of them.”

Sunshine had some awesome controls the effects of FLUDD were great. My problem is I hate Prof. E. Gadd, I hate FLUDD & and cleaning messes, I hate all the weird palm tree and shell dudes, I hate Bowser Jr, and I hate Yoshi (only in this game). That is why I could only get about 20-30 stupid shine spirts before I gave up.
I just wish that Galaxy had the kids rather than Bowser Jr.

I agree. I enjoyed Sunshine slightly more than Galaxy as well.

i agree w/ jonathon. as people have pointed out, the 2 games simply had different strengths, weaknesses, and stylistic choices. both successfully tinkered with the definition of a platformer, but galaxy was probably more ‘classically’ mario: the use of stars (though i hold nothing against shines), that bowser was done better, and that the story was obviously pretty standard fare, though i am not a fan of the rosalina dimension (even if her basic presence was useful as a way to structure the game). more importantly, perhaps, galaxy went for the short burst/sugar rush gameplay with more oh-crap-not-that-hole-again type levels- something much more associated with old-skool mario, and the focus on which the more easily ignored friendlies encouraged. i preferred the physics of sunshine, but galaxy’s was far more interesting. and sunshine’s camera was fine, i wish people were less finicky. although fair point on the roof of the hotel. point is i loved both. i would sit on nintendo’s dick all day if it constantly produced quality stuff like this. apologies if that is at all disturbing.

I definitely liked Sunshine better than Galaxy. It’s likely cause of the Summer/Beach theme though.

Sunshine was fun, but felt much more like a generic “next gen” 3D platformer where somehow the Mario model was this unlockable character that didn’t really belong.

I got quickly bored with it for some reason.

Loved Sunshine more than Galaxy, but somehow never got through Sunshine and grinded all the way to the 121st star in Galaxy >_

People have to understand that every Mario title is the best game in the world.

mario galaxy was the most upsetting mario game i’ve ever played…i’ve never once been disappointed with a mario game, but galaxy was a complete waste of my time and money. the wii mote didnt do a thing with motion control, mario somehow refuses to punch and kick anymore (using a marshmallow that needs a second to recharge before spinning again? what?!” and if you’re going to bring back such favorites as the fire flower why the hell would it be limited to just a few moments? galaxy is crap…where the hell is my nintendo 64?

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